IP Management assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

IP Management - Assignment Example The maintenance of ownership of the intangible assets is critical in today’s world where a rapid pace of innovation is followed. The value of the largest organizations in the globe are much dependent on the knowledge based innovations and designs within the organization. Therefore, it is critical to manage the intellectual properties efficiently so as to maintain the intangible assets and the value of any organization. Invention plays a critical role in adding value to the business by contributing to different processes with an objective of capturing and generating knowledge within the organization. Therefore, it is imperative to stress on the proper management of the intellectual properties like patents, trademarks and copyrights within an organization. The management of intellectual property encompasses a wide range of activities including the understanding of the intellectual property, the inherent value of the intellectual property and how the intellectual property should be protected from infringements. Intellectual properties are valuable financial and strategic resources of an organization. Therefore like any other asset, the intellectual properties should also be managed continuously. The proper management of the IP would ensure that the organization attains an in-depth understanding of the IP and thus can assess its values and benefits better. The effective intellectual property management would also ensure that the properties are protected from outside risks like infringement, usage and copy by third parties. The management of intellectual property is not a one-time event but a continuous process that is to be continued till the expiry of the intellectual property. The different decisions points to be identified within the life cycle of an intellectual property for the intellectual property management process are given below. Intellectual

The US and California Essay Example for Free

The US and California Essay The US and California Constitutions have changed in relationship to power in various ways as follows:- †¢ The relationship between the legislature and the judiciary has been one of the key constituents determining change. Thus when the Congress felt that the judiciary was assuming an all powerful and important role, an amendment has invariably come about in the US Constitution. †¢ One of the key issues which have been affected is the power between the North and the South or agricultural versus industrial economies of both the regions as signified by abolishment and resistance to slavery respectively. This has been one of the most complex issues which has been addressed through the Constitution affecting economic, political as well as social lives of people through abolishment of slavery in the 13th Amendment. The ratification of this amendment by states with the north leading the way during the Civil war and the secessionist Confederate States of America following up after defeat is an important period of change in the Constitution which has virtually reordered power. †¢ A part of the series of Reconstruction Amendments, the 14th and 15th Amendments in the Constitution granted citizenship and equal rights to non whites as any other citizens. This is one of the most powerful changes in the Constitution which has had a lasting impact not only in power, society and economy within American society but also in making the United States a beacon of freedom and liberty to the entire World. †¢ In California, the emergence of the Constitution of 1879 could ideally indicate the influence of power and its ability to reorder society in the State. The Constitution was adopted in times of grave economic and social crisis. During such periods there is limited influence of the government and public confidence on ability of the state to function effectively is also restricted. This has been reflected in the changes to the Constitution which placed restrictions on the power of the legislature. On the other hand with a view to carry out social and economic reform through the instrument of the Constitution, the document evolved was so detailed that even common statutes were included within it thus reflecting the influence of the times. Bibliography 1. Hyink, Bernard L. California Revises Its Constitution, Western Political Quarterly, September 1969, pp. 637-654. 2. Lee, Eugene. â€Å"The Revision Of California’s Constitution†. CPS Brief, Vol 3 No 3. April 1991. Berkeley : University of California.

Rate of Treatment Failure among Tuberculosis Patients

Rate of Treatment Failure among Tuberculosis Patients ABSTRACT Treatment failure in patients with pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) poses a great danger to the global effort in control of tuberculosis. This study evaluated prevalence of treatment failure among PTB patients at a tertiary care teaching hospital in Pakistan. Consecutive patients of smear positive PTB patients managed between February 2011 to October 2013 at the directly observed therapy (Tuberculosis) unit of our hospital were enrolled for the study. Sputum specimens were collected from each patient at entry for Acid Fast Bacilli microscopic examination and repeated at the end of 2nd (in category I cases only), 3rd (in category II cases only), 5th and 7th month of treatment. Of the 144 patients recruited, 124 patients consisting of 53 (42.74%) males and 71 (57.26%) females aged 14-85 years completed the study. Ninety three (75 %) of the patients were New (category I) at entry while 31 (25%) were Retreatment cases (category II). Among 124 smear positive patients at baseline, 22 (17.74%), 6(4.84%) and 6(4.84%) patients remained positive after 2nd (in category I patients only) and 3rd (in category II cases only), 5th and 7th month of treatment respectively. In conclusion, there is considerable treatment failure rate (4.84%) among our smear positive TB patients; and this poses a great danger to healthcare personnel and close contacts in the community. Key words: Pulmonary tuberculosis, prevalence, treatment failure. INTRODUCTION: About two billion or nearly a third of the world’s population is infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.(1) The global prevalence of TB was an estimated 14 million, with 9.4 million incident cases and 1.3 million deaths among HIV-negative cases for the year 2009. (2) Eighty-five percent of the 9 million people infected with TB each year live in the developing countries. (2) Whereas more women of child bearing age die of Tuberculosis than from all causes of maternal mortality combined.(3) TB incidence has tripled in high HIV prevalence countries in the last two decades with a slight decline in 2009. Globally, in people living with AIDS, one out of every four deaths is due to TB; globally 380,000 people died of HIV associated TB in 2009. Persons co-infected with TB and HIV are 20-30 times more likely to develop active TB disease than persons without HIV. Globally, 440,000 MDR TB cases were estimated in 2009 (8). There are 27 high MDR TB burden countries contributing 86% of the MDR TB case burden. Pakistan falls on number 4 among these high MDR TB burden countries.(2) Currently Pakistan stands 5th amongst the 22 high TB burden countries which account for about 81 % of all estimated TB cases around the globe. (4) Pakistan contributes about 63% of tuberculosis burden in the Eastern Mediterranean Region. According to WHO, the incidence of sputum positive TB cases in Pakistan is 97/100,000 per year and for all types it is 231/100,000 or around 420,000 new cases each year. The prevalence of the disease is much higher and is estimated at 373/100,000 population or 670,000 cases.(5) TB is responsible for 5.1 percent of the total national disease burden in Pakistan. The impact of TB on socio economic status is substantial.(6) Sputum smear-positive patients are the most potent sources of infection and, without chemotherapy, have poor outcomes, as about two-thirds of them die within 2-3 years of developing disease. (Ten years case fatality rate of HIV negative untre ated smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis is 70%, while that for smear negative cases is 20%). (7) Non-completion of treatment has serious consequences, including ongoing infectiousness and development of drug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The problem of resistance results from treatment that is inadequate, often because of an irregular drug supply, inappropriate regimens, or poor compliance. Drug resistance is a potential threat to tuberculosis-control programs throughout the world. (8) Materials and methods The study was carried out in a tertiary care teaching hospital in  Pakistan. The research proposal was approved by the Ethics and Review Committee of the hospital. Informed consent was obtained from the patients. The hospital has a TB clinic which is supported by the National Tuberculosis Control Programme Pakistan. Laboratory services for sputum microscopy and the drug regimens are provided according to National Tuberculosis Control Programme protocol. Consecutive patients who presented at the TB clinic of the hospital with smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis were enrolled. Sociodemographic data such as age, sex, marital status and occupation were recorded. Patients of age less than 5 years were excluded. Before enrolling into the study, the patients were well informed about the consequences and potential predictors of treatment failure such as treatment compliance. Pretreatment sputum specimens were collected from each patient for acid fast bacilli (AFB) examination. Patients were categorized as New cases (category I) and Retreatment cases (category II) on the basis of history of previous anti TB treatment. All patients were followed up to completion of eight months TB treatment. Sputum examinations were repeated at 2nd month (in case of category I only), 3rd month (in case of category II only), 5th month and 7th month of treatment. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 16.0 version. Results A total of 144 patients were recruited during the study period (between February 2011 and October 2013). Twenty patients were either transferred out or lost to follow up. One hundred and twenty four patients who completed their treatment at the centre were evaluated. There were 93(75%) New cases (category I) and 31(25%) Retreatment cases (category II). There were 71 (57.26%) females and 53(42.74%) males aged between 14 and 85 years. Majority of the patients (47.58%) were aged above 45 years with 6 patients above 80 years. Table 2 shows the age group distribution of sputum positive pulmonary TB patients on entry. Repeat sputum AFB results in study participants are presented in figure 1. Of the 124 patients who were sputum positive at baseline, 6 (4.84%) patients were AFB smear positive after 5 months therapy revealing the prevalence of treatment failure in these patients. Our study showed that TB affects mainly the middle and elderly age in our environment (47.58% of the patients managed were above age 45 years). This finding is also observed in some studies from the developed countries (9), While in developing countries it affects mainly the young age group. (10) One reason may be the changing circumstances in the less developed countries and further large scale studies may highlight the issue. Greater percentage of our study population was females which again is different from studies in our region. (10,11) Treatment failure rate among our patients was 4.84%. Though this is lower tthan reported in many studies we still need to further improve it (The cure rate of tuberculosis among Category I patients in our study was more than the cure rate reported by studies from Bangalore (65.7%) and Tamil Nadu (75%). (12,13) The World Health Organization guidelines have recommended achieving cure rate of 85%. The smear positive TB patients pose a significant risk to members of the public, close relatives, and health care staff who treat these patients. They are the focus for infection control measures, and contact investigations. This type of patient must be isolated because of risk of transmitting microbes. Treatment failure increases the risk further. These are the cases where there are much chances of drug resistance including multidrug resistance and extended drug resistance. ((((All 3 failure patients who underwent DST testing had MDR-TB, while 3 of 22 of relapse patients and 0 of 5 default patients tested did. While these DST results were only available for three failure patients and, therefore, not representative, these data and those from other studies suggest that MDR ri sk is not uniform among retreatment subgroups, with increased prevalence of MDR among patients with initial treatment failure. (14-16) Drug resistance is a global health concern and effective programmatic therapy of the smear positive cases is one of the cornerstones in its prevention. Facilities for rapid detection of rifampicin resistance are being made available throughout the country which can help in early detection of drug resistant cases. Physicians involved in TB management need to be involved in its programmatic management and timely referrals for testing resistance in appropriate cases. Taken together, these findings support use of DST in all retreatment patients, earlier DST testing in those with clinical and microbiological indications of impending treatment failure, and use of second-line drugs for retreatment of patients with initial treatment failure until DST results are known.(17) Recently, total drug-resistant tuberculosis has been described in which some patients with TB infection were completely unresponsive to all TB drugs. This is a big blow to the global effect in control of TB. On the other hand, additional burdens of isolation and stigmatization on the patients are enormous. (18) Noncompliance to treatment, deficient patient knowledge/health education, drug quality, and other comorbidities like diabetes mellitus and HIV infection had been identified as major predictors of treatment failure in patients with TB. These factors were not considered in our study participants. According to observations made in many countries, only directly observed therapy is capable of improving treatment outcomes. (19-22) The effectiveness of the DOTS strategy is also confirmed by our own studies. In conclusion, there is still considerable treatment failure rate among TB patients managed in our tuberculosis clinic. There is need for provision of facility for sputum culture for detection of patients with drug resistant TB cases. Policies on the management of tuberculosis need to be reviewed and strengthened in order to reduce open TB cases in the community.

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is NOT Sexually Biased Essay -- J.K. Rowli

J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter is NOT Sexually Biased J.K. Rowling’s blockbuster Harry Potter series contains mystery, suspense, compelling language and colorful imagery, magical feats, and real life concerns. These books have managed to get children of all ages reading in a society dominated by computers, television, and videos. However, there have been several critics that claim these books are sexually biased. From the beginning of the first Potter book, it is boys and men, wizards and sorcerers, who dominate the scenes and determine the action. This alone does not make these books sexually biased. Christine Schoefer, a freelance writer and concerned parent of three female Harry Potter fans, dissected the books in a brief piece for Salon on January 12, 2000. She claimed that the books are a â€Å"fictional realm of magic and wizardry that perfectly mirrors the conventional assumption that men do and should run the world† (Schoefer). J.K. Rowling did not attempt to portray the world as dominated by men. It is true that the Potter books contain more males. So what? Gi...

Boston Red Sox

Omar Perez BOSTON RED SOX INTRODUCTION Boston Red Sox is a professional baseball team of United States Major League based in Boston, Massachusets. It belongs to the East American Division League. The New York Yankees are their traditional rivals. 1. – TEAM HISTORY The Boston Red Sox were created in 1893 as a minor league franchise in the city of Toledo, Ohio in the Western League. Then moved to Boston when that league became the American League in 1900. The name of Red Sox was chosen by owner John I.Taylor after the 1907 season and is based on an obsolete form of socks. The former team of the Boston National League (Braves) had received as name, originally, because they used Red Stockings and Red Sox before leaving the practice temporarily in 1907, which inspired the owner of the American League team to use this nickname. Before 1908, the team used the American League average dark blue and had no official nickname. It was simply called the Boston or the Baseball Club of Boston . * The Curse of The BambinoThe Curse of the Bambino was a superstition cited as a reason for the failure of the Boston Red Sox baseball team to win the World Series in the 86-year period from 1918 until 2004. While some fans took the curse seriously, most used the expression in a tongue-in-cheek manner. The curse was said to have begun after the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth, sometimes called The Bambino, to the New York Yankees in the off-season of 1919-1920. The Red Sox had been one of the most successful professional baseball franchises, winning the first World Series in 1903 and amassing five World Series titles prior to selling Ruth.After the sale, the once-lackluster Yankees became one of the most successful franchises in North American professional sports. Talk of the curse as an ongoing phenomenon ended in 2004, when the Red Sox came back from a 0-3 best-of-seven deficit to beat the Yankees in the 2004 American League Championship Series and then went on to sweep the St. Louis Car dinals to win the 2004 World Series. The curse had been such a part of Boston culture that when a road sign on the city's much-used Storrow Drive was andalized from â€Å"Reverse Curve† to â€Å"Reverse The Curse†, officials left it in place until after the Red Sox won the Series in a 4-0 sweep. 2. -LEGENDS Denton True â€Å"Cy† Young. More commonly known as â€Å"Cy,† the big right hander spent nearly 20 years in the big leagues and set the pitching standard for all of baseball to follow. He was the only pitcher in baseball's first 100 years to win 500 games, including three no-hit shutouts and a perfect game on May 5, 1904. George Herman â€Å"Babe† Ruth. You'll rarely find a name in baseball recognized by so many people.From his portly physique to his legendary swing, to his affection for fans, George Herman â€Å"Babe† Ruth has often been called the best baseball player of all time. Ted Williams. Considered by many to be the greatest hit ter to ever play the game of baseball, Ted Williams is a true personification of the Red Sox mystique. He amassed 521 home runs, including a dramatic farewell homer on his last at bat in 1960. â€Å"Teddy Ballgame† Goes . 406. In just his third year, at only 23 years of age, Ted Williams went into the last day of the 1941 season hitting . 996, an average that officially rounds up to . 400. He is the only player in baseball history to hit . 400 in a season. * A â€Å"Parting Shot† — Never has an athlete finished in such style. In his last at bat of a Hall of Fame career, Ted Williams sent 10,454 fans into a frenzy when he launched a 1-1 pitch from Baltimore Orioles' pitcher Jack Fisher high into the damp gray sky and into the Red Sox bullpen for a home run. Roger Clemens. The Rocket mows down 20. Red Sox manager John McNamara said it was the most awesome display of pitching he had ever seen.On a Tuesday night in April of 1986, Red Sox right-hander Roger Clemens s hot down a record number of Seattle Mariners to break the Major League record for strikeouts in a nine-inning game. Roger Clemens won his third and final Cy Young in 1991 in a Red Sox uniform by going 18-10 with a 2. 62 ERA. He also registered 241 strikeouts that season. 3. – CHAMPIONSHIPS The Baseball Club has won 7 Worl Series Championships, some of them are: a) The 1915 World Series was marked by the strong hitting performances of the legendary Sox outfield of Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker and Harry Hooper.After dropping Game 1, the Sox won the next four to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies for the championship. b) Babe Ruth was the season and World Series hero, with a 23-12 regular season record and a 1. 75 ERA. In Game 2 of the Series, Ruth pitched a 14-inning, complete game 2-1 win against the Brooklyn Dodgers, while the Sox went on to take the Series four games to one for the second straight year. The Sox played their World Series games in 1915 and 1916 in the new and large r capacity National League Braves Field on Commonwealth Avenue, which held 40,000 fans. ) In 2004, the Red Sox went into the postseason as the American League Wild Card entry. They swept the Angels in the Division Series. The Sox were nearly swept out of the American League Championship Series, trailing the Yankees, 3-0,   in the best-of-seven series. But that was when they officially became historymakers, becoming the first team in Major League Baseball history to recover from a 3-0 deficit. After thumping the Yankees in seven games, the Sox swept the Cardinals for their first World Series championship in 86 years. Ramirez was named MVP of the Series. ) 2007, this year's wire-to-wire performance by the Red Sox was one of the most impressive in team history. Manager Terry Francona's team took over first place in the American League East on April 18 and never let it go. It was Boston's first division title since 1995. The fun did not stop after the 96-66 regular season. The Red Sox swept the Angels in the Division Series, came back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Indians in a seven-game American League Championship Series and then broke out the brooms again in a World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies.It was the second World Series championship for the Red Sox in four years, this after not winning one for 86 years. There were several individual standouts, from the Rookie of the Year performance of second baseman Dustin Pedroia to a 20-win season by Josh Beckett to more heroics from star run producer David Ortiz. Third baseman Mike Lowell, the MVP of the World Series, also had a big year, hitting . 324 with 21 homers and 120 RBIs. After much fanfare, Daisuke Matsuzaka came over

Safety in our Schools essays

Safety in our Schools essays Safety in the schools can mean life and death in many situations. One way is fires. With such things as thin walls, flammable interior, or exterior, schools could turn into a flaming inferno. All schools should be routinely checked for things such as escape routes from the building and the ease of opening and closing these routes. They also should be clear from any interfering things nearby. Schools should have such things as walls inside and outside that do not have flammable material. Often this is the reason that many brick buildings burn. Many think brick is the safest but often is inter-mixed with interiors that burn easily. If such buildings had non-flammable interiors, then such things might not happen. Schools should go through safety procedures with the children thoroughly at least once a month. The schools should try to communicate with the children about fires and try to get the point across clearly. Such things that should be mentioned are that children should leave the building quietly, even this is probably the hardest thing to do. The schools should try to teach the kids that running might get you out, but could injure or kill many more, some of them being friends or people you care for such as brother's or sister's even if they don't like them now, they'll miss them when they die. When the kids get out of the school, they should go to a selected place to wait for others and teachers to take authority. The children should then proceed to try to stay clear of the firemen and police ...